On Saturday, our bees expert Mr. Bitwababo Solomon and some selected children from primary six class with our teacher Mr. Byaruhanga Yowasi went to check on our bees at the park boundaries.
Solomon was very happy meeting us all in the park as we did not set out together only we had the program of finding him at the edge of the park.
Solomon started checking bee hive per bee hive to make sure all existing ones are in good mood.
He reported to us that among all the six hives, only two hives had serious colonies and this made him get a sad look at the face as he was targeting harvests over the period from May to July basing on the next check for productivity.
As a class we suggested to clean the position on which the hives are located. We were curious looking at Solomon cut empty honey combs that the bees had left within the hives.
Some bee hives will need new popes and more installation of new colonies.
Solomon handed some of the combs to us as we have been keeping combs to compare if any changes would happen in the way the combs are made.
On our bee check, we were happy to meet our Community Conservation ranger Ms Elinah who was just on her way to Kashaka fishing site, she greeted us in general and then held a simple chat to Yowasi as Solomon was busy cleaning the bee hives as we also cleaned the busy area.
In a minute Mr. Byaruhanga joined us and we saw Elinah take off on a bodaboda. Yowasi continued to tell us that they were planning a ranger visit to the school mainly to carry out talks in visits at least once every month.
We ended our activities by mid day and set to go home.
Thanks to all who joined us for the morning and hope to catch up in the next check.
Alot of inspection since our bee hives were installed at Kafuro in the boundaries of Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Kafuro bee keeping club ln cordination with Bitwababo Joseph a member from the community have done much of the cleaning of the place.
In this the land in the park is very fertile that grass is always developing very quickly that it needs more care for for each one or two weeks.
This was followed by installing of bee colonies into the hives.
In all the hives installed, two hives have sustained bee colonies
From Bitwababo our bee expert, the two bee hives were inspected finding one with some honey.
Bitwababo recommend that the hives need to be changed from the upper part of the apiary to the lower part which is near the river and shades can be planted to prevent too much sunshhine that has been a problem leading to other bees escaping from the hives.
Also in recommendation is to reinstall the bee hives to have productivity of honey.
With the bee keeping club, the bee hives ( both empty and containing colonies) were shifted and now wait for the weekend to have some harvesting from the hive where we found bees had done some duty to make some honey.
Pupils at Kafuro and teachers can not wait comparing their honey with the honey from England.
Well, first things first. We didn’t win! But read on and you will find out about an incredible presentation by Oscar & Imogen who were a credit to themselves and both Liss Junior and Kafuro Primary Schools.
The day started early with a 7.15am meet at school. After messages of good luck from parents we set off for London in Mr Burford’s car. The plan was to drive up to Tolworth and then to take the train and then the tube to Kings Cross where The Guardian’s offices were located. The drive up to Tolworth was smooth apart from a bizarre one way system just by the station, but we got on the train without any problems.
Once we reached Vauxhall and had to change to the tube the problems really began. It was almost impossible to buy a child’s ticket on the tube and there were no staff to ask or ticket booths open. After fifteen minutes of frustration we finally reached the platform and Mr Burford stepped onto the train only for the doors to begin shutting. Heroically, Mr Burford managed to wrench the doors open so Oscar, Imogen and myself could get on. However, the train driver announced that he now couldn’t close the doors and publicly told off Mr Burford over the tannoy system. Poor Mr Burford! Eventually the train started moving.
We reached Kings Cross without further incident and entered The Guardian’s offices. Everybody was very friendly. There were croissants on arrival which really pleased Oscar as he hadn’t eaten for at least an hour! Immediately after we went to the education room where we had to design the front page of a newspaper with information about the bees project. Although we had submitted copy earlier in the week, there was still some editing to do, but Imogen and Oscar were more than up to the task and the staff were very helpful. We finished the front page of ‘The Buzz’ in good time and the results can be seen below.
After a quick cookie break we all went into the main event room where the presentations began. Imogen immediately became very excited when she realised that Helen Skelton was one of the judges (for those of you reading in Uganda, Helen Skelton is a big television personality in the UK, who is seen as a particularly good role model for children due to some of the amazing challenges she has undertaken) and entered a heated debate with Oscar about who was going to present her with a cupcake as part of their presentation.
We had a long wait until it was our turn to present. Fortunately for the children, there was lunch served with all sorts of chips, goujons and burgers. They also soon discovered a big candy bar located towards the back of the room with tons of sweets, lollipops and other nice things. At one point Helen Skelton said that if the children didn’t eat everything then she would; they needed no such invitation.
At long last it was our turn to present and Imogen and Oscar put on their bee suits and went onto the stage. They presented brilliantly and showed no sign of nerves unlike their teacher, who was shaking at the back of the room. They answered the questions that the judges asked with some comfort and then sat down to a big round of applause. Next, we watched the other primary school presentations. One was for an art space and observatory, the second was for an outdoor teepee library and the final one was for an art shed called the splat shed. All the other presentations were of an extremely high standard as well.
There was quite a wait while the judges made their final decisions as to who should win, but Helen Skelton came back into the room and posed for photos with all the children who presented during the day. She had her photo taken with Oscar and Imogen. Imogen revealed that she had written about Helen as her hero in Year 4 and when the photo had been taken said, “This is the best day of my life!”
Finally, the judges made their announcements and the winning primary school was Great Sankey Primary School in Warrington with their splat shed. In their closing comments the judges mentioned our bees project several times so my guess is that we came extremely close to winning. However, it wasn’t to bee (sorry folks!) and our congratulations go to Great Sankey Primary School.
Oscar and Imogen received a framed copy of their newspaper front page and also a trophy for winning the regional final. They also stocked up with enough candy to feed an army for the return home. As is to be expected, there were inevitable train delays, but we eventually got back to school at 7.20pm – two very tired children and two very tired adults.
So all in all it was an amazing day and although we didn’t win the whole school community should be really proud of Oscar and Imogen. A big thank you to all the children staff, governors and parents who posted messages of support and to all the teachers who have been developing the curriculum to include bees. Many thanks to Mrs Moore who helped the children with baking and to Morag Crawley and everyone at Petersfield Beekeepers who have been so supportive of the school throughout the process.
Massive thanks to Yowasi and all the children and staff at Kafuro Primary School for all the hard work they have put into the process.
Finally massive thanks to The Guardian newspaper for organising a brilliant competition. We may not have won this year, but we’re already hatching our next project to hopefully go one better next year.
Oscar & Imogen with the Regional Final trophy and the framed newspaper front page.
Posing with Helen Skelton
Official press opportunity
Quite what the pigs were doing at The Guardian is open to question
The stage
Tolworth Station early in the morning
Working with Guardian staff on the newspaper front page
In Class AS we have been looking at bee hives and how bees build their nests in a hexagonal structure that naturally tessellates. Miss Flower showed the class how to create a tessellating shape and then the children began their own on a beautiful sunny morning. As the photos show you can see that the children came up with some very good ideas.
We would like to ask our friends in Kafuro if they could create their own tessellations. Have they been into any houses with tessellating floor tiles?
